The Dragon Inside
by Fiscala Nicai
Summary: Natsu is turning into a dragon and feels like a monster. ON HIATUS.
1. chapter 1

"Monster! Take what you want and leave us in peace!"

"Oi! Who are you calling a monster? I saved your village." A pink haired boy, with scales all over his body unknown to him, grabbed the mayor of the village that had a request for a Mage to get rid of a group of Vulcans that would not leave a village alone.

"Aye, he saved your village so why are you calling him a monster?" A flying blue cat questioned as Natsu started turning around dropping the mayor. "W-what's happening? Natsu where did those scales come from?"

"What do you mean scales?" Natsu a

"Over your face and arms!" The mayor yelled scurrying away.

To this Natsu was silent and stared at his hands shocked and wasn't responding to anything.

"Natsu? Are you okay?" After Happy said this, Natsu collapsed. "Natsu? Natsu? Natsu, are you okay?" He then picked Natsu up, reliving he wasn't waking up, and brought him to the nearby forest, by a lake, after snagging a piece of clothe to cover him.

After a day of letting him sleep, and Happy tending to his fever of 174F, his Temperature lowered to normal for Natsu 140F.

When Natsu woke up he was hungry, but didn't acknowledge that he was hungry, but instead tears started falling from his eyes, from there being more scales over his body including a small tail, and that he was called a monster. 'What if Fairy Tail calls me a monster, with all these scales and a tail it would be the likely thing to happen. What about Happy how will he feel. What if he runs, or screams? Wait he worried about me, but would anyone else. Gray would laugh, Lucy wouldn't, but she might tell Levy who will Laugh, and tell Jet and Droy who will laugh and tell others. The other slayers will understand, but Wendy might be pressured into saying I am covered in scales…'

While Natsu was thinking this, Happy flew up and hugged him and said, if you don't want to tell anyone, I won't while I help you get through this. Okay?" Offering him fish he caught for Natsu.

'That's right I don't have to tell anyone and I am sure he wouldn't even tell Carla if she asked' "Okay!" He choked out drying his tears, cooking and eating the fish, and tying the fabric like a cloak that hid his face.

They then started heading to Magnolia, but when they reached it Natsu head to their house and asked Happy to report that he finished the mission, and to not tell anyone where he is as no one knew where their house was.

"Hey, Happy where is Natsu?" Lucy questioned.

"Uhhh. He doesn't want to talk now." Happy stated. "But, we finished the mission."

"Ohh. What happened?" Erza asked eating her Strawberry Cake.

"H-he's just tired." He spoke trying to get away.

"Oh. Well can you ask him if he wants to go on this quest?" Lucy asked handing him a paper from the request board.

"Please help get rid of some thieves terrorising a village, 300,000 jewel." Happy read. "He told me he wanted to sleep for a few days, because he was exhausted from his last job."

"Getting rid of the Vulcans?" Mirajane questioned. "If I remember right that mission took you 3 extra days than it should have, right." She said, but when everyone looked back he had left to go back to natsu making sure to not allow the other Dragon slayers track him or Natsu.

"That was weird." Lucy stated with everyone agreeing with her.

When Happy got home he went to the bed and saw even more scales, and that Natsu fell asleep crying.


	2. Chapter 2

\--1 week later--

It had been almost 2 weeks since anyone had seen Natsu, but they would occasionally see Happy buying a bunch of food, but when they would try to ask where Natsu was, Happy and his scent was gone or his scent was overpowered by something the slayers couldn't stand.

\--A few days ago--

Happy was out fishing and buying food for Natsu, when Gajeel saw him and decided to ask where Natsu was.

He got up and started walking towards him casually, but Happy was on the other side of the road, so Gajeel had to get across a busy road, but Happy had already flown away.

In response to this Gajeel, tried to track his scent, but what he smelt was a repellent so strong it hurt his nose, and made him not be able to smell for a day. He also did similar things with everyone else who tried to ask.

\--Present--

"Natsu, I brought some food!" Happy yelled throughout the house getting no answer.

Happy set the food down on a table and flew to the room they shared.

What he saw shocked him.

Other than Natsu being asleep, his tail now hung off the bed, and his horns were a little bigger, he had scales covering almost half his body now.

Before he left his horns were tiny, his tail was smaller and there were less scales.

"Natsu! Natsu! Wake up! Natsu!" Happy yelled, worried about the progression of the Dragon Features, waking him up. "There are more scales, and your tail and horns are bigger. In only an hour. It is very worrying."

"What is going on."He yelled, accidentally loud enough that dragon slayers in the guild could hear.

"It could be a possible dragon part in you from Dragon Slayer Magic. I found a book the other day that was on Dragon Slayer Magic, but I didn't know if it would have an answer, but it might be why."

"You did? For me?" He said happily with a huge smile that made him look more like an angel than a dragon, and in response to his happiness his horns perked up a little.

The exciting news made them forget for a moment that the other two dragon slayers may have heard Natsu and might follow the sound. This caused them grab the book, the food, the cloak, and move to someplace less likely to be found.

\--A few minutes ago--

"So, no one knows where Natsu is, or Happy?" Mirajane Spoke/Asked.

"Nope."

"Salamander is probably exploring the forest or something."

"That doesn't explain why Happy is buying food and avoiding us."

"He probably i-" Was as far as he got before he was cut off by a yell.

"What is going on!"

This startled Gajeel and Wendy so much that Gajeel fell back on the ground, as he was leaning back, and Wendy started choking on her drink.

"What happened?" Lucy asked helping Wendy.

"I heard the Salamander." He whispered to himself, getting up and running out the door with Wendy, Carla, and Lily chasing after.

"Natsu!" Lucy confirmed, but they were long gone, and Lucy, Gray, and Erza, started running after them.


	3. Chapter 3

After a few minutes of running everyone got to Natsu and Happy's house, that showed signs of being lived in recently.

One of these signs was the strong smell of them going into the forest.

Again they started tracking them down.

Natsu, Happy, and Lisanna as kids had found a big tree, that had a hole under it that was hard to find, but it led into a cave that split into tunnels that were numbered, that then led to more marked tunnels, and a few of them led to caverns with letters. They were covered in Natsu and Happy's scent so it was the perfect place to hide.

Soon after the group left the house Natsu smelt the group, and they arrived at the cave which it's opening was big enough to walk in now.

"Can you wait by the entrance please, and try to make them go away, if they won't tell them I will only see Gajeel and Wendy. Then can you lead them 12,《》, N." Natsu asked.

"Aye, sir." Happy responded before Natsu walked down the passages while keeping his tail up and putting the cloak on.

After a few minutes the group of Gajeel, Wendy, the exceeds, Lucy, Gray, and Erza arrived.

"Oi! Happy, is Natsu down there?" Gajeel barked.

"Is he?" Wendy then asked worriedly.

"He is, but he doesn't want to see anyone." Happy explained to them, to try and get them to leave. However, none of them would leave, which led them to arguing, and Happy caved in. "Okay," He said with a sigh." he told me that if it got to this point, to let only, and I repeat only," He looked at Lily and Carla. "Gajeel and Wendy in. The rest he will not even look at."

"W-why!" Lucy started before Erza stopped her.

Happy then started to lead the two down the tunnel labeled 12, with Gajeel complaining, but at the same time not complaining, that it smells to much like Salamander.

Then he led them down the one marked《》and they started to wonder what the symbols meant.

Finally, Happy led them down the tunnel labeled N. This time there were no complaints.

Erza, had complied with Natsu's wishes and made sure no one went into the tunnels.

When they arrived at the cavern Natsu was in, they saw him sitting in a 'corner' facing the wall.

"Oi! Salamander, where have you been?" He barked.

"Natsu-San?"

"Home." He whispered only wanting to talk loud enough Happy could hear and tell them.

"Why" Gajeel barked, lighter though.

"Because," He started, all the while Natsu Happy telling them, getting up, "this." he then pulled off the hood of the makeshift cloak and looked at them.

"Natsu-San, what happened." Wendy asked after a gasp, with Gajeel too stunned to say anything.

Natsu then looked at Happy hoping he would explain it for him.

Happy noticed this and started,"When we finished the Vulcan job, scales started appearing on him, and the villagers called him a monster. Then he fell unconscious and had a fever of what I think was around 175F. B-"

"175F?" Gajeel yelled surprised.

"140F is normal, but anyways, after a day his fever lowered and more scales appeared. A few days ago the horns and tail appeared."

"And you told no one because,?" Gajeel started.

"He told me." Happy defended.

"Aside from the point." Gajeel said.

"He didn't want to."

"Why?"

"He didn't want Fairy Tail to call him a monster, like the villagers."

"They won't call you a monster, you already were a freak to begin with, how would dragon features change that."

"I don't think they would change anything, but Natsu says, they would change a lot."

"They won't Salamander!"

"He says he wants you to leave and not tell anyone about him. He only saw you, because you are fellow dragon slayers."

"Natsu-San, if that is what you want okay, but I hope you come by guild, please."

"Alright, fine, but you owe me Salamander."

"He said thank you." Happy said repeating Natsu who had started crying a little, which surprised the angry Gajeel, and Wendy.

"It's okay." They said leaving.

When they got out everyone asked what happened, but Gajeel just said with a frown, "Can't say, but he's... fine." Ending with showing he was a little perplexed about him being fine.

"What do you mean you can't say?" Gray asked chasing the two dragon slayers that were walking away.

"We promised not to tell." Wendy answered walking away.

Because of the Dragon parts his senses were doubled, so he could hear that the group was perplexed, and the two kept their promise.

"Oh! We forgot to ask what they meant." Gajeel remembered, talking about the symbols.

"Right, Maybe next time." Wendy spoke with a smile. "He wanted to be alone for a little."

When they got to the guild hall, everyone kept asking how Natsu was doing, however the only answers they got were, 'only Wendy and Gajeel know.' 'We don't know.' he ran away.'

"Gajeel? Wendy? Why won't Natsu talk to us?" Mirajane asked furious.

To this Gajeel just ignored her.

"Answer m-"

"He said they promised not to tell." Gray stopped her sighing.

"Wendy?" She asked, kindly this time.

"uh, uh."

"Just give up!" Gajeel stated leaning back in a chair hoping nothing would startle him.

Blggh!

Just what he didn't want to happen. Gajeel fell because he saw a calm Happy fly over to Wendy and whisper something in her ear.

"Sure! I'll do it!" Smiling Wendy responded to Happy once he finished talking leaving him to fly back to Natsu. "Gajeel?" She promted earning questioning looks from everyone, and a nod from Gajeel. "Thank you!" After this both of them left to another room.

~~~~~~~~~~~~

I'm sorry for not updating, I have so much school work, and I got voted Chief Science Officer. But my days have been wake up, school, homework, sleep. I finally found time to write this. Thank you for all the support!


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